versão impressa ISSN 0185-3325

Resumo

Prenatal depressive symptoms, due to their high prevalence (22% to 37%) and negative consequences on the health of the mother, the baby and the course of pregnancy, require early detection to provide support and treatment. The CES-D is a scale to identify symptoms of depression that is easy and quick to apply and has adequate validity among expectant mothers. The purpose of the study was to analyze the validity and reliability of the CES-D in pregnant Mexican women, as well as its sensitivity, specificity and predictive values using the SCID as the gold standard. Method The study was based on the secondary analysis of data. A sample of 98 pregnant women attending antenatal care in health center was selected because they displayed depressive symptoms or previous depression. Results The internal consistency of the CES-D was α=0.81. Factor analysis, which assessed the construct validity, yielded four interpretable factors (depressive affect, lack of energy/somatic symptoms, interpersonal relationships and positive affect), which accounted for 49.10% of the variance. The ROC curve analyses, showed an AUC of 0.81; for a cutoff point of >16, showed 100% sensitivity and 19.6% specificity; and sensitivity of 80.0% and specificity of 76.1% for a >28 cut-off point. Conclusions The CES-D showed excellent internal and construct validity in Mexican pregnant women and appeared to be a suitable tool for detecting depressive symptoms -a requisite for implementing preventive actions. However, it was less accurate, but still acceptable, when diagnosing major depression according to DSM-IV criteria with a score of >28.